Ranking the Best Websites for Booking Flight Tickets
With a myriad of online travel agencies (OTAs) and airline websites vying for your business, finding the best place to book flight tickets can feel overwhelming. This comprehensive guide cuts through the noise, providing an objective comparison of leading flight booking websites based on factors like price, search functionality, user experience, customer service, and extra perks. We'll assess the strengths and weaknesses of each platform, empowering you to make an informed decision and secure the best possible deals for your next journey.
Table of Contents
1. The Giants: In-Depth Reviews of Leading OTAs
Expedia: As a well-established player in the travel industry, Expedia distinguishes itself with a comprehensive platform that goes beyond just flight bookings. Users can seamlessly bundle flights with hotels, car rentals, and even cruises, often unlocking significant savings. The Expedia Rewards program further sweetens the deal, allowing travelers to earn points on bookings and redeem them for future travel.
Priceline: This platform differentiates itself from its competitors through its signature "Priceline Express Deals." This unique feature allows travelers to secure flights at discounted rates by foregoing the ability to choose specific flight details, such as departure times or airlines, until after the booking is confirmed. While this approach can lead to substantial savings, it also demands a high degree of flexibility from the user, as flight modifications may not be readily available.
Kayak: Kayak stands out as a leading player when it comes to metasearch capabilities. The platform excels at aggregating flight results from diverse sources, including airlines, OTAs, and travel agencies, providing users with a comprehensive overview of available options. This allows users to compare prices from multiple vendors.
Google Flights: It has a lot of search functionalities. The limitation is that you are not actually able to book the flight on the service, but are redirected on several outside webpages. These searches are usually pretty good, and customers can definitely fine tune what they are looking for in these instances.
2. Booking Directly with Airlines
Booking directly with airlines can be a favorable route from a cheap travel option. Aside from saving money, there is also enhanced customer service available. Despite these factors that customers seem to enjoy from booking a trip, there are some caveats to this. OTA is much more likely to assist you with what you are looking for in terms of flexibility of the flight that you end up picking when traveling.
3. For the Budget Traveler
Skyscanner offers a range of options for travelers, as it focuses on the absolute cheapest fares, and includes a wide range of budget airline options for traveling. Because of this, it is one of the leading sites amongst budgeters. There are reliability options that can be impacted by low pricing, so make sure that your dates are right and that all options are in line with your dates that you travel.
Momondo finds unique deals by looking at many resources. It still redirects to other websites. You can enjoy cheap prices, with a wide range of different times, despite the limitations listed beforehand for booking the flight.
4. Uncover Niche and Metasearch Platforms
There are also smaller OTAs and metasearch engines that many people might overlook when looking for flight costs, as these websites aren't as popular due to their niche approach. For example,
- Kiwi.com: One website that you can visit combines flights from airlines that don't normally partner. This can lead to very creative itineraries including very cheap pricing, as well as layovers. If you want to visit multiple cities on one trip, this is a strong method to use if flexibility is not an object.
5. Loyalty Programs & Perks
If you are a frequent flyer, consider choosing an OTA that partners with your preferred airline or offers a rewards program. A large variety of airlines offer programs like this to make booking flights more desirable. It allows you to earn points and miles on your flight bookings, so it will significantly cheaper your next flight while traveling.
6. Avoid Scams and Hidden Fees
It is vital to book through legit companies. If it looks sketchy, you should avoid it! Make sure it isn't someone who can just take your money! Also, watch out for hidden fees that the webpage can add to the price of flying.
7. Our Top Recommendations for Different Travel Needs
- Best Overall: Expedia
- Best for Budget: Skyscanner/Momondo
- Best for Flexibility: Book with the Airline
